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The next morning I was reading about the Willie Nelson 4th of July Picnic and Country Throwdown being held at the famed Billy Bob’s of Texas.  We opted not to attend due to the heat and expected crowd but I had to ask myself a question. The newspaper noted a section headed “If you go….”.  It said, “Don’t bring coolers, food, drinks, audio/recording devices, chairs, umbrellas, pets and WEAPONS!”  Now why must you tell people in writing not to bring weapons to a party??

I realize this is Texas but people should know better!!

Hope your celebration was full of friends, family, hamburgers, hot dogs, beer, wine, lots of fun…….. and MOKK-A!!

At the beginning of known recorded history, Tunisia was inhabited by Berber tribes. Its coast was settled by Phoenicians starting as early as the 10th century BC. The city of Carthage was founded in the 9th century BC by settlers from Tyre, now in modern-day Lebanon. Legend says that Dido founded the city in 814 BC.

It was just a three hour flight from Amsterdam to Monastir, a beautiful city of the northern coast of Africa. Our friend Nasr was waiting for us at the Monastir airport when we arrived. Nasr was born in Tunisia but has lived in Paris for many years.

We were only there four days but when you know people, you see and learn a lot. Tunisia is of course a primarily Muslim country dominated by Mosques and chanting towers. They chant 5 times per day. If you have the time to take a look at my pictures you can get a feel for the country as well as the people.

Our hotel was lovely, complete with Infinity Pool. Imagine that! This is Africa you know. The staff was quite helpful until it came to my need to connect to the Internet to get a few orders out. They kept telling me they did not have the card. I kept checking with the desk and finally, when I offered to pay, the code was released.

While walking through the streets you see small cafes everywhere filled with men talking and drinking coffee or tea. It was quite rare to see a woman. Tunisian women prefer not to see their family, cousins or children sitting in a café, this is something only the men enjoyed.

Our days were filled with discussions regarding Green Energy products. The first meeting was in Tunis, the capital. We met in a lovely restaurant called La Goulette in La Mer and enjoyed lunch for almost four hours, picking out our preference of fish, shrimp and other treasures of the sea upon entering. The local wines are also very nice.

We were taken to markets and fish shops in the small villages of Mneshi-Lamta and Sayada. Visited Port Job in Teboulbe, and enjoyed mint tea topped with pine nuts in the beautiful and picturesque village of Sisi Bou Saἳd, Village Bleue.

Late in the evening, very large restaurants were filled only with men. “It is the will of God” it was explained to me.

Before heading to the airport we roamed Mahdia and had, again, a wonderful lunch with friends.

Tunisia may not currently be on your “list of places to visit” but I would highly recommend that you put it there! But for now, in 2011, you might wait a bit to make the trip.   PS I did leave some samples of Mokk-a behind. You never know! www.mokka-.com

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I was told by a Tarot card reader on New Year’s Eve of 1990 that he saw a lot of European travel in my future.  Looks like he was right!

It began in 1992.  I was enjoying a successful career in Houston and one day I became bored.  I had an idea for a business of my own and somewhat as a joke presented it to a friend involved with a new venture in Siberia.  I had no idea he was presenting the idea to the Board the following week.  Suddenly I was in business......in Russia!

I never considered the negatives when I began the project.  I merely charged forward having faith in my ability to learn as I go.  “If you don’t risk anything, you risk even more.”  If I sit around and think about everything that can go wrong, it probably will.”

So in December of that same year I was off on my first trip to Siberia!

We left from a small airport in Moscow on a rather old plane operated by Aeroflot.  It reminded me of an old Greyhound bus!  When I boarded most of the carpet was pulled up, the seat backs were pushed forward, I had only one piece of my seatbelt, part of my luggage was in my lap and for 3 ½ hours I prayed harder than I had ever prayed in my life.  Amazingly enough the landing was probably the smoothest I have ever had….on a sheet of ice at least 4 inches thick!  I stepped off of the plane into temperatures at -40° Celsius.  It was so cold my tears  froze to my face.  Oh my!  I was in Raduzhny!

A gentleman working for the joint venture was there to meet us and take us to our “hotel”.

Welcome to Raduzhny - Not quite sure what I expected. Now am I ready for this? I        was going to be here 10 days!

We soon arrived at our hotel and the headquarters of the joint venture.  It was clean enough.  The people were nice, many Americans.  And the heating system worked like a charm!

Here is the kitchen and chef cook Sergio. He served some great Texas style spare ribs and chicken!! Of course he was feeding Texans most of the time. Fresh veggies everyday and a LOT of potatoes. They bought only the best!

Raduzhny was built around the oil industry and gained town status in 1985.  The city was not even 10 years old when I was there.  Looked to me to be 100!

In the days I was there I traveled through the oil fields going from camp to camp meeting with the Camp Boss.  I thought this was something I could sell in the corporate offices in Houston, Dallas and Tulsa.  Yet as much as they all loved the idea, nothing ever happened.  It was not until I met with the Camp Boss that the orders began to roll in.

We set up an Employee Benefits program for the Russian workers on the camp.  It was a formula based on Safety, Performance and Oil Production.  Each month employees were issued credits based upon this formula and with these credits they could order cloths for men, women and children, applicanes, electronics and even food from my catalogue.  There was nothing except what you now see in Raduzhny.

One meeting took me to Nizhnevartovsk a few hours from Raduzhny.

On the way, I saw the young children of local trappers playing together in the snow.  Their parents often stood with a watchful eye as we passed.

Siberia is actually quite beautiful in the snow.  Yet the summers can be very warm.  When the snow melts, there are problems with transportation and..... the mosquitoes appear!  Giant Mosquitoes!

As the projects began full operation, we signed 26 contracts in the only six months.  Then problems with duties applied to the export of oil caused a bit of a slow down.  This gave us a bit of time to redesign the project.

My joint venture partners were a Portuguese catering company.  We decided to open a store and this gave us the time to do it.  Now the employees of the Joint Ventures could come to the shop to redeem the credits they had received by the operator of the venture.

The mafia was the first to pay us a visit. "Pay or we burn the place down." We obviously paid!

I must say, this was an adventure I will never forget! 

“15 Miljoen Mensen” by Fluitsma en van Tijn is a song I heard shortly after moving to the Netherlands. It talks matter-of-factly about the Dutch culture, and it’s title translates to “15 Million People”, which was at that time [circa 1996] the population of the Netherlands. The population as of July 2007 was officially 16, 570,613. Given you can fit the Netherlands 16 times into the size of the state of Texas, one can then understand better why here things are built so small and on top of each other. The song talkes about how the Dutch seem to have their own opinion for everything, and how even though authority is not treated with seriousness, everyone respects one another. Except for their own neighbor and especially when one wonders what the neighbor does to afford his rent/house payment, his car and other luxuries. It speaks of how the Dutch are able to take care of each other and themselves. No one starves. I had to laughed when I heard the lyric “gordijnen altijd open zijn” [drapes are always open] because one of the first things I noticed when I came to The Netherlands was how even in the evenings the people will leave their shades open.

For the song, I’ve included below both the lyrics in Dutch and the lyrics translated to English. In the English translation there are some notes to help explain better what is being said.

“15 Miljoen Mensen”

Land van 1000 meningen
Het land van nuchterheid
Met z’n allen op het strand
Beschuit bij het ontbijt
Het land waar niemand zich laat gaan
Behalve als we winnen
Dan breekt acuut de passie los
Dan blijft geen mens meer binnen
Het land wars van betutteling
Geen uniform is heilig
Een zoon die noemt z’n vader Piet
Een fiets staat nergens veilig

[Refrein:]
15 miljoen mensen
Op dat hele kleine stukje aarde
Die schrijf je niet de wetten voor
Die laat je in hun waarde
15 miljoen mensen
Op dat hele kleine stukje aarde
Die moeten niet ‘t keurslijf in
Die laat je in hun waarde

Het land vol groepen van protest
Geen chef die echt de baas is
Gordijnen altijd open zijn
Lunch een broodje kaas is
Het land vol van verdraagzaamheid
Alleen niet voor de buurman
De grote vraag die blijft altijd
Waar betaalt ‘ie nou z’n huur van

‘t Land dat zorgt voor iedereen
Geen hond die van een goot weet
Met nassiballen in de muur
En niemand die droog brood eet

[Refrein nog 2 keer]

And the lyrics in English:

“15 Million People”

Land of 1,000 opinions
The land of soberness [down-to-earth]
All together on the beach [if it is a nice day, everyone and everyone goes to the beach]
Rusk [cracker] with breakfast
The land where nobody lets themself go [emotionally]
Except if we win [example: a sporting event]
Then the passion breaks loose
Then nobody stays inside [and everyone goes out to celebrate the victory]
The land with many rules
No uniform is respected [example: police, military]
A son who calls his dad by his first name
A bicycle isn’t safe anywhere [can be stolen from anywhere]

[Chorus:]
15 million people
On that small piece of land
You can’t tell them what or what not to do
You leave them in their dignity
15 million people
On that small piece of land
You must not put them in a straight jacket [you can't hold them down]
You keep them in their dignity

The land full of groups of protesters
No boss is really “the boss” [the boss must behave on the same level as the employees]
Drapes are always open
Lunch is a cheese sandwich
The land full of tolerance [of religion, nationalitiy]
But not for the neighbor
The big question always remains
How does he pay his rent? ["Where is he getting his money from?"]

The land that takes care of everyone
No dog knows a gutter [everyone has substantial means, so not even a dog will starve]
With snacks in an automat [Dutch: automatiek]

[repeat chorus twice]

So maybe you should give Cafe Holland a try also! www.mokk-a.com Let me know how you like it!